Film Review: Air
Air
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Artists Equity, Skydance Sports, Studio 8, Mandalay Pictures
Amazon Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures
My Rating
8/10
#whatonwhatsgood Fan Club Rating
74%
#whatonwhatsgood Express Review
Description
Sonny Vaccaro, a shoe salesman at Nike, works to sign Michael Jordan to a deal to wear their shoes.
Release date
April 5, 2023
Ben Affleck
Written by
Alex Convery
Produced by
Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Peter Guber, Jason Michael Berman, Jeff Robinov, Madison Ainley and David Ellison
Starring
Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro
Ben Affleck as Phil Knight
Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser
Chris Messina as David Falk
Marlon Wayans as George Raveling
Chris Tucker as Howard White
Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan
Matthew Maher as Peter Moore
Tom Papa as Stu Inman
Julius Tennon as James R. Jordan Sr.
Joel Gretsch as John O’Neil
Gustaf Skarsgård as Horst Dassler
Barbara Sukowa as Kathy Dassler
Jessica Green as Katrina Sainz
Dan Bucatinsky as Richard
Cinematography
Robert Richardson
Edited by
William Goldenberg
Screenwriter Alex Convey discusses AIR at SXSW 2023
I'm a Chicago kid. So the bulls were my childhood, so anything with Michael Jordan, you know, finding a way to tell his story, but not a direct biopic was always very interesting.
The Jordan shoe deal really changed the economics of the entire industry. I just don't think people knew that.
So to me, it was a really interesting way to tell the story.
It's not necessarily a Nike movie either, you know, it's an underdog story.
Hopefully, it's inspirational.
Ben Affleck discusses AIR at SXSW 2023
This is a movie that we wanted people to enjoy. It's made to inspire people to make them feel good.
It's about people and their flaws, conflicts and struggles.
I'm not usually drawn to this kind of thing, but I thought I want something that could really inspire people you know, in the way that Michael Jordan inspiring to the world.
It's a movie that you think is about one person and another and then you find out who the real protagonist is.
Chris Messina discusses AIR at SXSW 2023
So when I look around and get to do it with these people (Ben Affleck, Chris Tucker, Jason Bateman, Matt Damon, Viola Davis), it's like a dream come true.
Chris Tucker discusses AIR at SXSW 2023
I'm excited and I think people are going to love it.
Ben Affleck...I call him coach because he's an actor/director. He knows what actors like.
I'm playing one of my friends that I know. It was one of my great friends who I like a lot.
It's a period piece...a lot of nostalgia...it's inspirational. It's an underdog movie too.
Jason Bateman discusses AIR at SXSW 2023
Just being invited to hang out with the cool kids is always kind of fun.
Matt and Ben are just about the best at what they do.
Matt Damon discusses AIR at SXSW 2023
I think what happened was when we wrote Goodwill Hunting, it took so long because we didn't know what we were doing.
When we wrote The Last Duel together it went really fast because in the intervening 2 decades we've done nothing but make movies. So we kind of figured out how to do it.
And so we found ourselves like really enjoying the process again, and we should be doing this more often.
Viola Davis discusses AIR at SXSW 2023
You know you are flattered at first, and then the next second is pressure to play the woman who basically is the orchestrator of this great athlete's life.
She was so influential.
I'm looking at videos of her and if you've ever seen videos of Delores Jordan, she's extraordinary.
@jovintardif AIR starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Marlon Wayans, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, Chris Messina and Chris Tucker releases in theaters in April 5th. More info ⤵️ https://whatonwhatsgood.blogspot.com/2023/02/air.html #BenAffleck #AIRMovie #air #MattDamon #MarlonWayans #JasonBateman #ViolaDavis #ChrisMessina #ChrisTucker #Nike #MichaelJordan ♬ original sound - Jovin Tardif
Ben Affleck's Statement
I really believe that human excellence is a beautiful thing; the concept of genius is one of the things that’s most fascinating to me, and Michael Jordan is nothing if not a genius. There is a mystery in what exactly makes him who he is—that level of elite, that cut above, the greatest basketball player ever. His influence on basketball and sports in general, and the people who love them, is incalculable.
However, this a story that exemplifies how—even before he stepped on an NBA court—he completely transformed the world of sports marketing and how athletes are compensated, championed by his mother, who envisioned his future and knew his worth.
AIR is not Michael Jordan’s story, but there is no story without him. I would not have made this movie without first reaching out to him. And I’m grateful to Michael for sharing what was important to him. His presence and influence is felt throughout the film, though we don’t see his face. Because he is such an icon—an undisputedly important and meaningful figure, someone everyone holds in such high esteem—we didn’t want to shatter the illusion, but rather let the audience invoke their own memories and experiences of what Michael Jordan means.
The unconventional team at Nike, led by Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), Howard White (Chris Tucker) and Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) saw greatness in Jordan, but they never imagined that a shoe designed around a single player would be the catalyst for a multibillion-dollar global industry that would set a new standard. Today, we take it for granted when stars in any arena have a brand, but this is a story about the nascence of that—when the concept of creating a brand and associating it with personal identity was first formed.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the movie for me was that, going into it, the protagonist isn’t who you think it is. In the course of developing the film, I came to the realization that the fulcrum of the movie is Viola Davis’s character, Deloris Jordan. I wanted to do justice to her, as well as Michael, and honor who they are and the lasting impact they have on our culture.
Director/producer Ben Affleck quotes
“I had a picture of my little brother wearing Air Jordans; it was the winter of 1985 or early ‘86. I remember quite clearly when Nike replaced what was popular then, which was mostly Adidas. And I remember how, seemingly overnight, Nike became what you had to have if you wanted to be cool. But I had no knowledge whatsoever of the backstory of the origin of the Air Jordan. Naturally, we know that the shoe is not what made Michael great; rather his greatness is what made the shoe such a phenomenon. Sneaker culture is ascendant now, and AIR is about the inception of that, which I think will surprise a lot of people. That appealed to me.”
“I wasn’t going to make this movie without at least seeking Michael’s blessing, making sure there was nothing objectionable to him and asking him, ‘What do you really care about?’ He was gracious enough to sit down with me, and he had a couple of things that were important to him, like making sure Howard White and George Raveling were included. Michael wanted to honor the contributions that people made, and he was quite adamant that Viola play his mother. I guess that’s very in keeping with Michael Jordan—to set the bar as absolutely high as possible and then expect to reach it.”
“It has long been an ambition of mine to direct her in a movie. So, overall, I felt like it was incumbent on me to try to make sure the part warranted someone of Viola’s stature. And in typical fashion, it turns out that Michael is a genius casting director as well.”
“Michael Jordan is so famous that I truly felt if we ever saw an actor playing it would be hard to get the audience to suspend their disbelief, because, in my opinion, there’s no convincing anybody that someone who isn’t Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan. We felt a more interesting way to tell the story would be for him to exist in the ether of the movie. To be talked about by everyone but not seen is somewhat analogous to the experience of celebrities and sports stars in modern life, because most people go their whole lives without ever meeting or seeing their favorite sports star or celebrity in person. So we only see Michael in clips and flashes. We don’t ever fully see him in person because to see him in person would be to put his feet on the ground in a way that the movie doesn’t want to do.”
“He loomed so large in my childhood when I was at the age when professional sports was all-consuming. I have nostalgic memories that I associate with that period, and I thought I could have fun hearkening back to that.”
Matt Damon quotes
“You might go into the movie with a certain set of expectations, but then the story evolves into being more about Viola’s character, Deloris Jordan, Michael’s mother. That’s what we loved about the story: it centers around this person we know, this great sports legend, but it’s about everything happening behind the scenes and, in particular, the impact his mom had. She was so sharp and understood what his value really was. And the rest is history.”
“AIR is just one of those feel-good movies about a time in our lives that many of us remember so well,”
“When I was watching The Last Dance, I had this experience of reminiscing about when I was a kid and got to go to one basketball game a year. My brother and I would always choose the Bulls because we wanted the chance to say we saw MJ play in person. In our youth, he meant so much to us…he was everywhere.”
“Obviously, we’ve written and produced together over the years, but getting to work with him as a director was utter joy and so creatively rewarding. We tend to have similar sensibilities about what’s working in a scene and what isn’t, so we had such an ease with each other. And this cast…every day I was working with another heavyweight acting hero of mine. Start to finish, it was the most fun I’ve ever had on a movie, and it just doesn’t get any better than that.”
“There are changemakers who we don’t necessarily see and don’t necessarily know. We only know Deloris predominantly though Michael Jordan, but she was someone who was able to create tremendous change in the space she was in. I think the inspiration to be found in the entire movie is—and my husband, Julius, says this all the time—you don’t know whose life you’re going to touch; you don’t know whose life you’re going to change, but your job is to plant the seed. You don’t know how it’s going to grow, but you have to plant it no matter who you are. If there is one thing you could take from this movie, it’s that everybody had a great idea, but you didn’t see how it was going to grow. And now, here we are in 2023 and we’ve seen the unbelievable growth from all these ideas that came from people who were just following their hearts. That’s all they were doing. I think that’s a larger message for people in general, that you don’t have to have a million dollars, you don’t have to have a PhD. You just have to have a vision, a purpose, a heart, and a huge amount of courage.”
Jason Bateman quote
“I’m excited for people to see this movie because the Air Jordan is such a major part of the fabric of our culture and it’s amazing that most of us never really knew how it all came about.”
Chris Messina quote
“When I was a kid, I had a pair of Air Jordans, and I obviously understood the talent as I saw Michael Jordan play. But it was not until reading the script and doing research on the time and my character that I truly understood the impact that this deal had on sports in general. And to this day, I have a 14-year-old and a 13-year-old, and they’re still buying Air Jordans.”
Chris Tucker quotes
“What they did not only changed their own lives but the lives of future generations of athletes. I think Howard is very proud of what they accomplished, together with Michael and his mother, and I am proud to be part of telling their story.”
“When my agent told me about the role and mentioned the name Howard White, I said, ‘Wait a minute, that’s my friend.’ So I called Howard up and talked to him a lot about it and got a lot of good information. I thought it was cool that I could play a good friend in the movie and also get so much insight from him. He took me through his life and helped me learn about the business and what happened between Nike and Michael Jordan, and the signing of Michael. It was awesome.”
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